Homosexual Jewish prisoner from France attacked in prison in Turkey

* Photo: KaosGL

Click to read the article in Turkish

Journalist Tiffany Pillon from france24.com has reported that Fabien Azoulay, a homosexual and Jewish citizen of France behind bars in Turkey for 4 years, has been attacked and harassed in prison in Turkey.

As reported by the Ankara-based Kaos GL LGBTI+ association, the issue has been summarized by Meriç G. Doğan from the LGBT+ in Prison team of the Civil Society in Panel System Association (CİSST):

The İstanbul Heavy Penal Court sentenced Fabien Azoulay to 16 years, 8 months in prison in 2017. His attorneys and relatives have been struggling since then to ensure that he will be repatriated to France. They have recently decided to publicise his situation.

In his letters from Giresun prison in Turkey's Black Sea region, Azoulay wrote to his family, "I pray and cry every day for a miracle. I cannot imagine staying here for the full 16 years, 8 months."

Already imprisoned for almost 4 years for "importing a banned narcotic product", Azoulay (43) has asked France to repatriate him so that he can serve out the rest of his sentence in his own country.

Azoulay, who is homosexual and Jewish, has said that he is being harassed, mistreated and threatened on a daily basis.

Carole-Olivia Montenot, Azoulay's attorney, has described feeling a sense of impotence as she has been hearing of the horrors experienced by her client. "It is terrible. He is being intimidated, his fellow inmates are telling him to convert to Islam and to pray five times a day. He is also being harassed because of his sexual orientation," the attorney has said.

Sophie Wiesenfeld, the founder of the think-tank Hexagon Society and president of the Fabien Azoulay Support Committee, has also said, "His conditions of detention are an attack on human dignity."

In his letter to a relative of his, Fabien Azoulay also wrote, "There are so many of us here living in such a small space. To go to the toilet at night, we have to walk on top of people who are sleeping. When they are woken up, they get angry and there are fights."

'He witnessed a homophobic murder'

According to Montenot, the arrest was followed by "a succession of small hearings that each lasted about five minutes". Azoulay's prison sentence was handed down on February 27, 2018, at the end of an "accelerated trial that lasted for about 15 minutes, including all the translations", the attorney has said. The court sentenced Fabien Azoulay to 20 years in prison, later reduced to 16 years and 8 months for good behaviour at an appeal hearing.

Despite his appeal and a legal petition, the courts in Turkey have upheld the initial verdict. Azoulay's sentence was finalised in January 2019. Five months later, his attorneys launched a repatriation request that would allow him to serve his sentence in France, his home country.

Azoulay was first jailed in a prison in Maltepe, a district of İstanbul. He believed that it was necessary to hide his religious affiliation and explained in a letter sent to a friend that "jihadists are trying to radicalise other prisoners". In this overcrowded prison, he said that he was subjected to forced prayers, physical violence and even witnessed a homophobic murder.

Although Azoulay tried to hide his sexual orientation from other inmates, he was also subjected to a homophobic attack in November 2019. "A fellow prisoner knew he was homosexual. In the middle of the night, he threw boiling water all over Fabien's body, causing second-degree burns. Fabien had to be transferred to hospital," his attorney Montenot has said.

Azoulay's lawyers reported this to France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called an emergency meeting. The Ministry proposed getting Azoulay transferred to another prison in Turkey. His legal team refused and reiterated their demands for his repatriation.

Azoulay was nevertheless sent to the prison where he is currently being held, 800 kilometers from Istanbul. "He is even more isolated there than he was in Istanbul," says Wiesenfeld. "His family can no longer visit him because the area is surrounded by jihadists and it's dangerous."

Click here to sign the petition launched for Fabien Azoulay

(EMK/SD)